Fata Morgana
by Aensland
Summary: Naruto was given a gift. A talent for mischief, and an affinity for Genjutsu. Skills that led him to taking life as a ninja more seriously, though only just. Nonyaoi. Rated M for a bit of foul language. I do not own Naruto or anything Naruto related.


A/N: This is a story about a genjutsu using Naruto. I've altered a couple of things in the Narutoverse, first instead of making him an insane chakra battery, Kyuubi passed on an affinity for genjutsu to Naruto. Second, the sealing left Naruto with a couple disorders.

People that have read my previous Naruto work (My Unbending Word) might recognize bits and pieces of it in this one. I incorporated some of the parts I didn't hate about that fic into this one.

So without further a due, on with the show.

-o-

Naruto blinked as he was shoved aside by the speeding form of his former academy teacher. He watched the silver-haired Chunin bound over the roof of a low-rise building, before shrugging to himself and readjusting his hitai-ate. There was a muted thud behind him. Spinning around Naruto caught a glimpse of his favorite teacher hopping after Mizuki. His eyes narrowed at Iruka's shaky posture and the still bleeding wound on his back.

Noticing that no other ninja where pursuing the two instructors, Naruto leapt up to the rooftops after them. In the distance he could make out the silhouettes of the two chunin heading toward the eastern forest. 'Why would they be leaving Konoha…?' Forcing as much chakra as he could into his legs, Naruto leapt off in pursuit. With his chakra pumping through his legs, driving them near to the breaking point, Naruto was able to close the distance to the two, but was outclassed by the two more experienced ninja, and lost them as they entered the woods.

"Shit…" Naruto cursed under his breath, before plunging into the forest. He had been traveling up in the trees for several minutes before he started hearing what sounded like a heated conversation in the distance. Naruto's thoughts began to race, trying to think up some sort of plan for when he confronted Mizuki… and Iruka.

Upon arriving at a clearing in the forest, from his vantage point in the trees, Naruto could make out Mizuki pointing a Fuuma shuriken at and talking to a very beat up looking Iruka. Naruto let out a breath of relief, for a moment he had feared Iruka and Mizuki had gone rogue. But Iruka's body was covered in kunai wounds, meaning Mizuki must have got the drop on him and Iruka had given chase. Naruto watched as Mizuki pulled back his shuriken arm, and then moved.

"This is the end, Iruka!" Mizuki laughed. Iruka, who had his head lowered, looked up suddenly when Mizuki's laughter was abruptly cut off. He watched as Naruto, who had appeared suddenly before Mizuki, shot into the air, his knee connecting with Mizuki's face with a good deal of force, launching the Chunin into the air.

Mizuki for his part was able to roll with the fall, softening his landing somewhat. Turning to look at his assailant, he almost broke out into a fit of laughter. "Naruto-kun! I must say you surprised me. But you should have stayed out of this." An insane light danced in his eyes a moment. "But this is such an opportunity! Shall I tell you a secret little one?" He drawled.

Iruka looked on in horror as Mizuki prepared to tell a 12-year secret to the one person who was never supposed to know. A boy he had come to care about, despite whatever the boy might be carrying within him. "Mizuki!" He managed to gasp out. "Don't you da—"

"Every one hates you. Even Iruka here." He gestured to the prone chunin. "You see, brat, the story of the Nine-tailed Fox is a lie. It didn't just vanish into thin air. Our Yondaime Hokage sealed it up… into you. You are the demon fox!"

Naruto's right eye twitched. "You thought I didn't know?" Both older nin gaped at the boy. "The Hokage came clean after I went berserk and consumed the orphanage in a pillar of flame. I have that damn thing in my head! It purrs seductively one moment, and threatens to devour my soul the next. It threatens and flatters and moans like a whore, all to try and convince me to let the kitsune-bi set the sky ablaze again." Naruto snarled at Mizuki, "Shall I give you a taste? You hurt Iruka-sensei… it's the least I can do." Naruto flashed through a chain of hand seals, gathering a shocking amount of chakra. Naruto sneered as he forwent finesse and slammed his chakra construct into the stunned chunin.

Iruka could do nothing but stare as he watched Naruto seemed to calmly walk up to Mizuki and circle behind him, slitting the traitorous ninja's throat with one of his own kunai. Without realizing it Iruka mentally sighed in relief as he analyzed Naruto. The youth's hand was shaking minutely, and his cut was jerky and imprecise. 'It's his first kill.' Iruka thought. 'Or is it? What he said about the orphanage…' The chunin stumbled to his feet, and staggered over to Naruto.

"What was that jutsu?" He asked.

"A genjutsu technique I read about." He shook his head. "It was lucky it worked. It had no subtly, and just hit his chakra like a hammer. It usually only works on civilians or people with no mental training. But, he," Naruto spat on the corpse, "seemed shocked enough that I took a risk."

Placing a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder. "You did well, Naruto."

The genin looked up at him. "Thanks sensei. Though… I enjoyed that a little more than I would prefer… Well, I'm gonna go blow off some steam! I'll let you take care of this mess, sensei!" Naruto grinned, waved slightly at the slack-jawed chunin and trotted back to Konoha proper.

-o-

Naruto sighed wistfully as he watched Kurenai arrive to pick up her team, thankfully taking the loudmouth and his dog with her, last night had left him with a bit drained and he did not need to listen to that braggart ramble on and on. Iruka had told them that their Jounin was told to pick them up at twelve thirty, and here it was an hour later and still no sign.

"One thing is for damn sure," Naruto said, startling both his teammates, though it was far more visible in the female member of team seven. "He better have a good reason for being so late or we're going to be having some issues."

Sighing again Naruto looked at his two teammates. He managed to refrain from shaking his head, he knew why he was placed on this team; the Hokage had already briefed him on the circumstances surrounding his acceptance into the ninja ranks. The most important of which was to have assassination specialist guide his team in case he could not regain control during one of his mood swings.

He snorted, drawing hid teammates' attention back to him. Waving them off Naruto went back to his thoughts. He knew he would be dead with in the week; Haruno had been fawning over the Uchiha for the Kami knew how long, but in the relative short period they waited for their Jounin sensei she had come close to being murdered no less than three times. 'That's not including the Uchiha's plans even.'

Ignoring the fantasies of Haruno being pummeled to death, Naruto began massaging his head. "Ugh!" Naruto slammed his fist onto his desk and stormed over to the door, yanking it open he glared down the hallway. "Why is he so damn late?!"

"You better not get us in trouble Naruto!" Sakura yelled though she did not bother to move from her seat next to Sasuke.

"Tch," Naruto said. He climbed up on the table by the door and wedged an eraser in between the door and the frame. "I'll teach him to let me get bored." Sasuke sat up a little straighter and watched as Naruto attached a thin ninja-wire to the back of the eraser and ran the wire to the ceiling corner.

"What are you doing? Do you really think a Jounin is going to fall for that stupid trap?" A soft thud drew his attention back to the doorway, where a silver-haired, masked ninja had just walked in, and was now standing in a small cloud of chalk dust. 'This is our Jounin sensei?' Sasuke sighed. 'He doesn't look like much.'

The Jounin blinked his one visible eye. Ignoring Sakura's apologies, he glanced up to where Naruto was looking down on him over his shoulder almost pouting. "Mou… Figured I had more time than that…" Naruto turned around, pocketed his springs in his tool pouch, and sheathed his kunai. "Would have hit your hitai-ate anyway…" Naruto walked back to his desk, muttering about jounin that wore their protectors funny.

"Hmm…" The masked Nin scratched his chin. "First impression… slightly intrigued." His eye closed and curled upward faintly.

"Well, lets meet up at the 'Ten' roof park." The Jounin said before walking back out the door and disappearing from sight.

Naruto hopped off of his desk and made his way to the window. "Naruto! You better not get us in trouble because you're dawdling!" Sakura screeched.

Looking over his shoulder Naruto saw Sasuke leave through the door, and Sakura following him like a lost puppy, pausing only to glare at him before leaving the classroom. Naruto blinked at the open doorway. "Do they know nothing of the ninja?" He asked himself and jumped out the window.

-o-

Naruto was the first of the genin to arrive at the park, arriving a few minutes after their Jounin instructor. Naruto plopped down, leaning back against one of the trees. He glanced at his new sensei to see the Jounin eyeing him lazily from his spot on the railing overlooking the edge of the building. "Where are the others?" He asked Naruto.

"Taking the long way." Naruto replied with a sigh.

"I see." The Jounin said before the pair slipped into silence, waiting for the other members of the Cell to show up.

Ten minutes later they heard the door to the roof open, and watched as the two other members walked over to them. The silver haired Jounin gestured for them to sit on the steps in front of him. "Right, now that you're all here," He began, causing Sakura to glare at Naruto. "I'd like you all to share a bit about yourselves with the rest of us."

"Like what, sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Hm…? …You know, the usual stuff. Your likes and dislikes, any dreams you might have, hobbies, stuff like that."

Naruto looked up at the Jounin. "We're in the dark about you just as much, sensei. Why don't you start us off then?"

"Yeah," Sakura chimed in. "We just met you after all, and you look..." She trailed off, not wanting to insult their sensei.

"Saa… well, my name is Hatake Kakashi, and I'm the type of person that doesn't reveal their likes or dislikes on a whim. My dreams for the future are none of your concern… But I have several hobbies."

Naruto stared at him blankly, while Sakura voiced out loud her opinion. "So… after all he said," She said to her teammates. "We really only learned is his name."

Naruto shook his head. 'Shinobi code 13: Always read underneath the underneath… you should know that… Everything he said was probably calculated to give an aura of carelessness to him, to make us… underestimate him maybe? But why? Or—'

"Now," Kakashi began, interrupting Naruto's thoughts. "It's your turn, lets start with you, Blondie."

Nodding slightly at Kakashi, Naruto introduced himself. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. What I like is training, genjutsu, strong women, and ramen! My dislikes… hm, weakness, and cowardice I guess. My dream is to become even stronger than Hokage-jiji, and take my place among the greatest of Hokage! I have a couple of hobbies as well."

Kakashi's eye widened slightly, before returning to its lazy state. 'Well, he sure is an interesting one…' He nodded at Naruto. "Okay, dark eyes, you're up."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke began, not even bothering to move his hands steepled in front of his mouth. "There are many things that I dislike, but then there isn't a whole lot that I do like. I refuse to use the term 'dream,' what I have is an ambition. The resurrection of the Uchiha clan… and to kill a certain man."

Sakura blushed thinking about how 'cool' Sasuke was, while the two other males had very different thoughts.

'Someone to kill? Interesting…'

Kakashi sighed internally. 'I figured as much.' He folded his arms across his chest. "Ok… pinky it's your turn."

Sakura bristled a bit about being called pinky, but stopped herself from yelling at her sensei. "I'm Haruno Sakura. The thing I like the most… the person I like…" She glanced at Sasuke blushing brightly. "Umm… my dream is… Hey! A girl's dream is her own you know!!" Even as she spoke, though, she still glanced at Sasuke again. "The thing I dislike is… Naruto."

Naruto looked over at her idly. "Should I feel hurt?"

Sakura glared at him before continuing. "My hobbies…" She looked toward Sasuke for a third time, causing Naruto to raise his eyebrows, and Sasuke to start sweating slightly.

'What a freak.' Naruto thought.

Kakashi felt the crushing weight of depression fall over him. 'This girl seems to be more interested in love than being a ninja…'

"Saa, that's enough of that; we all understand each other now, yes? So we'll begin training tomorrow."

Naruto snapped off a salute. "About time! So what's the scoop, sensei?!"

"First we'll be doing something with just the three of us." Kakashi surveyed the three nin-hopefuls with a bored look in his eye.

Naruto frowned, not liking the sound of that he asked. "That something doesn't happen to get us paid does it, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hm…? Oh… no, it'll be some survival training."

'Goddamn it!' Naruto's right eye twitched as he ranted mentally. ' I finally make genin, and I'm low on cash.' Naruto clutched his head between his hands, his eyes wide as he realized. 'It's mid-month too! Shit, shit, shit! My stipend from jiji doesn't come till the first!'

Sakura looked puzzled. "Why would our first duty be survival training, sensei? Our days at the Academy were filled with it!"

Kakashi snorted. "Oh…? Well, in this case, you'll be trying to survive… against me. This won't be your average practice, believe me."

Naruto perked up, he allowed his mental tirade to slide to the back of his mind and allowed the fox to continue ranting where he had left off. "Is that right? Against you? Sounds fun!" Naruto smiled slightly.

Kakashi broke out laughing, much to the dismay of his students.

Sakura frowned slightly. "What's so funny, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Nothing… its just… well, when I tell you guys, you're definitely going to freak out."

"Oh?" Naruto asked. "I think we're tougher than you realize Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi chuckled. "Well, it's just of the twenty-seven graduates, only a fraction of you will actually move on to be accepted as a genin. The rest will wash out and have to redo the academy training." Kakashi leaned his head on his hand, his eye curled up in a pleased manner. "Tomorrow's 'training' is an extremely demanding exam. Its failure rate is well over fifty percent!"

The three shocked genin all stared at Kakashi.

"Ha ha ha!" Kakashi spread his arms in a pseudo-shrug. "I told you you'd freak."

"What the hell?!" Naruto shouted. "There is no way I'm gonna be sent back to that boring ass place!"

"Oh?" Kakashi asked amused. "Well, prove it to me tomorrow then. In any event, the test is tomorrow on the training field, where I can evaluate you as shinobi candidates. Bring all of your ninja tools. Oh… and skip breakfast before coming, because you will end up throwing it up." Kakashi stood up from the railing and walked over to the genin, pulling several pieces of paper from one of his vest pockets as he did. "Here are the details of the assignment and directions to the field." He handed each of the genin a copy. "This training field is Cell seven's field. Memorize it… and don't be late!"

The three genin read over the instructions. Sakura griped the paper to the point of tearing it. Sasuke nodded once as he glanced over it, before crumpling it up. Naruto read it over twice before shredding it into fine strips, and letting the wind carry them. "See you tomorrow then, sensei."

-o-

Naruto arrived at the training field to see Sasuke sitting by a tree in almost the exact same position he was sitting in yesterday when they introduced themselves. In fact the only difference was the large pack sitting next to him. As he approached he noticed Sakura was sitting beside him, trying to pull Sasuke into some sort of conversation. Sighing he sat down across from the pair of them, not surprised when neither of them acknowledged his arrival.

Naruto had to admit that Kakashi did choose a decent spot for their training grounds. It had trees and shrubbery for hiding and spying and a clearing for all out fighting. It even had a river nearby. Though the three posts at the clearing edge seemed out of place and left Naruto wondering about their purpose.

An hour later, though, Naruto came to two very different but equally irritating conclusions. The first being that Kakashi was very late, and as such it was probably a habit of his; the second was that Sakura seemed physically unable to keep her mouth shut for any period of time.

Growling slightly, Naruto stood up and started walking across the clearing toward the river. Of course, it was just when Naruto had gotten comfortable again that a cheerful, "Yo!" echoed across the field.

Naruto jumped to his feet, his lips curled up in a snarl, only to be forced back a step by a deafening shout, "You're late!"

Shrugging, Kakashi set an alarm clock down on the middle of the three posts. "I've set this timer for noon." He began, his back facing the genin. He turned slowly, holding a hand, reveling a pair of small bells dangling from his finger. "Your task is to steal these two small bells from me before the timer sounds. Anyone who doesn't get a bell does not get lunch. Instead, you'll be tied to one of these posts," He gestured to the posts behind him. "And I will eat your lunch in front of you."

Naruto stifled a groan, as his stomach protested. He glanced at his teammates and saw that they were in the same situation.

"All you need is one bell," Kakashi continued. "But seeing as there are only two bells, one of you is definitely heading for a stump… and whoever that is will be the first of you to fail, and will be heading back to school… and disgrace." Kakashi paused a moment to attach the bells to his belt. "You may use shuriken if you wish, though I would recommend aiming to kill, otherwise you won't stand a chance."

Sakura's eyes widened in shock. "But that's very dangerous!!"

Naruto sighed as his opinion of the pink-haired genin dropped even further. "Don't you think that, as a Jounin, he would've had to face worse things than genin-thrown kunai by now?"

As Naruto's words sank in an embarrassed flush colored Sakura's cheeks. Kakashi smiled behind his mask, without letting it show in his visible eye. 'This group might prove interesting…'

Standing up straight, Kakashi surveyed the three genin for a moment. "Well, at least you haven't underestimated your opponent. That is a good thing." He glanced at Naruto. "So it would seem that you've begun to respect me a bit…" Chuckling slightly Kakashi continued. "Maybe, just maybe… I'm starting to like you three." He tilted his head to the side a bit. "Now, ready… go!" With that all four of the shinobi vanished from the field.

-o-

Kakashi wasn't bothering to be subtle in the slightest. He was standing in the middle of the clearing reading a bright orange book. The book surprised Naruto, recognizing it as one of those books he had to steal as the clerks would not let him buy them.

Making sure he was downwind, and out of sight from the Jounin, Naruto quickly scampered up one of the taller trees in the training field.

Naruto watched, hidden in the foliage of the trees, as his sensei walked about the field below. He shook his head, and sighed under his breath. Naruto brought his hands together in the tiger seal, he gathered his chakra slowly, hoping to prevent detection. He watched Kakashi pace till his back was turned, and began chaining hand seals. As silently as he could he started to adjust his position back to one closer to the ground and nearer to his target, knowing his genjutsu would not last long without him concentrating on it; all the while hoping neither of his teammates where stupid enough to fall for such a trap.

Kakashi blinked as he felt a foreign chakra subtly alter his own flows. A gentle tug here, a prod there, he 'hmm'd' to himself as he traced the chakra back to his mind, trying to find what was altered. Kakashi looked up from his book as he isolated the genjutsu. Flipping his book closed for a second, smirked at the greenish brown cover. Apparently Naruto had taken away his ability to perceive orange. 'Let's see what you can do then, Naruto.' Kakashi left the genjutsu in place and went back to reading.

Dropping to the ground with a muted thud, Naruto glanced around the tree to get a visual of Kakashi. He barely managed to catch the jounin glance at his book cover, but did not feel his illusion dissipate. He smiled slightly, though internally acknowledging the point. Before he went back to his task though he watched as a hail of kunai and shuriken rained down on Kakashi. Naruto nodded to himself as he watched the bloodied form of Kakashi erupt into a thick smoke, only to be replaced by a log branch. Glancing around, Naruto tried to find some sort of sudden displacement that could have been caused by Kakashi. Finding nothing he cursed under his breath before moving on to his original target.

-o-

Only the hand that clamped over Sakura's mouth stopped her screech from being heard all over the training grounds. When she realized the hand belonged to Naruto, who was now signaling her to be quiet, her shriek turned to what Naruto had to assume were curses of some sort.

Taking his hand off her mouth Naruto began, "Listen, I—"

"Just what do you think—" Sakura yelled over Naruto, only to have his hand reseal her mouth shut.

"Idiot!" He growled under his breath. He quickly tugged her away from their previous spot, not caring when she fell over, never letting go of her mouth. Being dragged on the ground through the brush was not, in Sakura's opinion (and inner Sakura was screaming her agreement), an enjoyable experience, and she tried to voice this thought to Naruto through his hand. Pulling her back up to her feet, Naruto met her glare with a withering stare. "Listen up girl." He hissed. "You give away our position like that again and I'll knock you out cold and leave you for Kakashi-sensei to fail." He waited till he saw what he said had sunken in before removing his hand and continuing. "Time to prove your worth, Haruno. Now, you have the highest book-smarts in our class, right?" She nodded unsurely. "I need you to figure out this test." At Sakura's confused look he explained. "You don't think a ninja's test would be straight forward, did you?"

Sakura's eyes widened in understanding. "B-but what about Sasuke! We need to tell him too!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You figure it out while I try to buy us some more time. We'll worry about that when the time comes."

"Buy us more time?"

Naruto grinned at her. "His exact wording was 'Your task is to steal these two small bells from me before the timer sounds.' He never said… adjusting the timer was against the rules." Without another glance at her he took off in the direction of the three logs with the timer.

-o-

A flash of light east of his path drew Naruto's attention from his task. Deciding to investigate he veered eastward. In moments Naruto noticed the trees thinning out, slowing his pace he cautiously made his way toward the clearing. With his back pressed to the last tree before the open area, Naruto mentally prepped him self for combat. Naruto dashed into the open, gathering chakra as he went. Only to be confronted by the head of Sasuke. Naruto stared at Sasuke for a moment before—

"Bwahahaha!" Naruto, for the life of him, could not stop himself from laughing. Dispersing his chakra, Naruto managed to ask, "The hell happened to you?" He chuckled again.

Sasuke growled at Naruto. " I don't need your help!"

Tilting his head slightly Naruto said, "I wasn't planning on offering any. In fact, if you can't get out of there yourself I have no use for you."

Sasuke growled at him, but Naruto was already running back toward his original goal.

-o-

Naruto approached his target cautiously, double-checking the area for traps as he did so. Finding none, he quickened his pace. Grabbing the alarm, Naruto swiftly sunk behind the post it had been placed on and began to fiddle with the device. A moment later he heard a cough from behind him. Startled, Naruto leapt up and spun around, a pair of kunai appearing in his hand.

Kakashi eyed Naruto from his position perched atop the post. "And what's this…?" He asked lazily.

Naruto tore off his jacket and tossed it at Kakashi, canceling his genjutsu as he did. Kakashi turned his head aside, the sudden reappearance of the neon orange at point blank had momentarily blinded him. Jumping backwards, Kakashi let out a quiet breath of relief when he felt the pair of bells clink against his leg. As he landed, Kakashi fell back into his loose, unguarded looking pose.

Kakashi idly counted down in his head. 'Four… three… two…' The buzzer echoed through the training ground just as Naruto dropped down in front of silver-haired ninja. Kakashi chuckled slightly at the curses flowing from the boy's mouth.

-o-

Kakashi stood before the trio of genin, wearing what seemed to be a neutral expression, near as any of them could figure. The jounin took a moment to watch the three of them as he formed his speech. Naruto was pacing in the background, muttering under his breath, while Sasuke and Sakura were sitting before the stumps. "Well, I have good news! None of you need to worry about being the first to fail…"

Sakura sat up quickly, her eyes lit up and she nearly squealed. "You mean…!"

Kakashi glared at her. "You all fail here and now." Sakura slumped to the ground looking like a kicked puppy. Naruto stopped pacing as he heard Sasuke growl and launch himself at their instructor. Before he could even decide to help, or try and stop his teammate, Kakashi brushed the boy's attack aside, knocked him to the ground, and pinned him there. "And that's why you'll never amount to anything as a ninja. None of you figured out how to pass the test—"

"Teamwork." Sakura whispered, staring at the ground. Kakashi whipped his head around, his visible eye focusing intently on the kunoichi. She took a steadying breath and began again, louder. "Teamwork was the answer to the _real_ test." Kakashi caught the emphasis and was surprised to see Naruto nod in understanding before going back to pacing. "Naruto clued me in at the beginning. He asked me to figure out the real test while he tried to buy the team some more time."

'I see…' Kakashi glanced at his alarm clock.

"I was having trouble at first, but it all made sense when I remembered one of the teachings of Shodaime-sama. 'Someone cannot be great alone, for greatness built in solitude cannot last. Konohagakure was founded on the greatness of many.'" Sakura looked up and met Kakashi's gaze. "Konoha's pride… is teamwork."

Kakashi nodded at Sakura, and stood, releasing Sasuke from the ground and let him walk back to his teammates. "Very good, Sakura, you puzzled it out."

The kunoichi blushed, though Kakashi wondered if it was the praise or because Sasuke had sat down a few feet from her, but had to admit, "Without Naruto's push I probably wouldn't have figured it out."

Eyeing the two of them Kakashi smirked under his mask. "Teamwork eh…? But what of Sasuke? Naruto left him to rot."

Naruto sighed and stepped forward so he stood by the other two genin. "That is my responsibility, and I will take whatever action you deem fit." 'Come on you one-eyed freak, sacrificing myself for my teammates, you gotta pass me now!'

Kakashi nodded at Naruto. "One last chance then. Sakura, Sasuke take those lunches and eat up, then we'll try again; but no sharing with Naruto." His eye narrowed fiercely. "In this, my word is law." He turned and lazily walked away, leaving the genin to eat, and vanished in a swirl of leaves. Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly. 'Konoha-Shunshin or Magen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu?' Naruto asked himself. He closed his eyes fully and sent a tentative pulse of chakra through his mind. 'Clever bastard. I might have to steal that idea.'

The minutes passed by in near silence, with only the sound of chewing coming from two of the three ninja. Finally, it was Sasuke that broke the quiet. "Here," He grunted as he offered the remaining half of his bento to Naruto. "Take the rest."

Naruto ignored Sakura's outcry and reached for the food. "You're sure?"

Sasuke smirked at him. "I don't sense him anywhere near here. Besides… teamwork, remember? We need to be at our best."

Naruto accepted the food gratefully and was about to dig in when a slow methodical clapping echoed across the field. Across the clearing they could see Kakashi leaning up against a tree in plain view. So it was a genjutsu, Naruto thought.

"Well done you three." He vanished in a plume of smoke, before instantly appearing before the genin. "You all pass." He said, his eye curling up in a please manner. "Let's head on home. Meet here tomorrow morning!" Kakashi dismissed the enthused genin.

As the three made their way back toward Konoha proper, Naruto felt a gloved hand fall on his shoulder. Turning around he saw Kakashi gazing lazily at him. "A moment Naruto."

Naruto blinked at the older Nin. "Sure, I guess."

Kakashi nodded at the other two genin, "You two go on, I need to ask Naruto about something."

"Whatever." Sasuke muttered as he continued back to the city, stoutly ignoring Sakura as she attempted to talk him into a date with her now that they were heading back alone. Kakashi watched them walk off a moment before turning back to Naruto, seeing the young boy already fidgeting Kakashi repressed a sigh. Something will have to be done about his patience, he thought.

"Naruto, where did you learn genjutsu? It's not something normally taught extensively in the academy." Kakashi asked.

Naruto blinked at the question. "Ne, sensei, back during one of the guest speaker sessions on genjutsu at the academy Kurenai-senpai came in and gave us a simple D-rank genjutsu to try and cast on her so we could get a feel for it. She was surprised I was able to pull it off as quickly as I did, and since I had some skill with illusions she decided to swing by when she could and give me some pointers." Naruto shivered slightly, Kurenai was a very 'hands-on' type of teacher when it came to genjutsu, and her pointers usually consisted of slapping a new genjutsu on him and forcing him to isolate it and find a way to break though it.

"Hmm, Kurenai-senpai…?" Kakashi asked, his eye once again curling upward.

Missing the slight innuendo, Naruto scratched the back of his head and grinned. "I guess its Kurenai-sensei now, since she made jounin and has a team of her own."

Kakashi nodded absently before his eye took on a serious look. "I assume you know why you're on my team, even though it's unbalanced?"

Naruto dropped his arm to his sided and nodded, his body stilled from its near constant motion as Naruto became just as serious. "Hokage-jiji briefed me before the team assignments. Out of all the jounin taking on teams this graduation, you have the skills necessary to kill me should I lose control of myself during a mood swing."

Kakashi eyed him a moment. "Hokage-sama gave me a briefing as well. I know in general what to look for, but how often does this happen?"

Naruto lifted his arms in a helpless shrug. "It's not something that happens all the time, but there's no real warning. Something that I'd shrug off one day could set me off at a later date." Naruto sighed. "I've only lost control that one time, so you know."

Kakashi nodded. "Very well. I'll see you tomorrow then, Naruto."

Naruto grinned at the silver-haired ninja. "An hour late, right sensei?" Laughing at his own joke, Naruto jogged off toward Konoha. "Oh!" Naruto stopped at the edge of the clearing, and turned around to face Kakashi looking serious again. "If my eyes go solid red… you'll need to kill me."

Kakashi bit back a sigh as he watched the orange-clad genin disappear into the woods. "Maa… this job is turning out so troublesome…"


End file.
